


All Roads, They Lead Me Here

by Signsofsam



Series: I Hate Accidents (Except When We Went From Friends To This) [12]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Future Fic, Light Angst, M/M, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Slice of Life, idek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24279319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signsofsam/pseuds/Signsofsam
Summary: “Eddie, you really should sit down.”In the years they’d been married, Eddie had always been the calm one in regards to Chris. Any bump, any bruise, and Buck was freaking out, but Eddie was the same patient father he’d always been (or at least, the entire time Buck’s known them), handling everything that came their way with his practiced composure, so watching him pace the kitchen, hand running through his hair as he glances at his phone every few laps is really a sight to behold. “He knows about curfew! We’ve been over it!Where is he?”
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Series: I Hate Accidents (Except When We Went From Friends To This) [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1584202
Comments: 47
Kudos: 451
Collections: 9-1-1 Tales





	All Roads, They Lead Me Here

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from _The Last Time_ by Taylor Swift (ft. Gary Lightbody).
> 
> And y'all...I don't even know. I'm so weary about inserting my own OC into my series, but I really, really hope you enjoy. I also know exactly zero about the fostering/adoption process, so I hope I kept it vague enough to at least be a little bit accurate.

“Eddie, you really should sit down.”

In the years they’d been married, Eddie had always been the calm one in regards to Chris. Any bump, any bruise, and Buck was freaking out, but Eddie was the same patient father he’d always been (or at least, the entire time Buck’s known them), handling everything that came their way with his practiced composure, so watching him pace the kitchen, hand running through his hair as he glances at his phone every few laps is really a sight to behold. “He knows about curfew! We’ve been over it! _Where is he_?”

“Eddie, calm down. You getting this upset at him isn’t going to do anything but scare him.” Buck’s words are sobering, and Eddie sighs, running his hand through his hair yet again. “We will talk to him when he gets here, but you getting angry at him is going to make him pull away.”

“I just-what if they take him from us, Buck?”

Buck shakes his head, standing to pull Eddie to him, kissing him slowly. “They aren’t going to take him from us. His social worker loves us, and she’s happy with how he’s doing here, remember? She was thrilled when we asked her about adoption.”

“But-”

Buck kisses him again, his blunt nails scratching through the short hairs on Eddie’s nape, and he feels Eddie relax, fraction by fraction, piece by piece. “No buts, Edmundo. We’ve had it easy with Chris, and he’s an awesome kid, but sometimes the good ones also take a little work.”

“You were one of those good ones that took a little work, weren’t you?” They don’t talk about Buck’s past a lot, because it hurts Buck to think about, and Eddie never wants Buck to hurt.

Buck shrugs. “I’d like to think so, but my parents certainly didn’t care enough to see.”

“ _Cariño_ -” Buck kisses him again, to silence him, keeping the topic for any other time. They hear the front door unlock, and Buck gives Eddie one more supportive peck before the door opens, and their wayward charge slinks in, clearly weary of the lights still on. When he sees Buck and Eddie in the kitchen, he startles for just a moment before his mask of nothingness, completely void of _anything_ , settles, a long practice tactic he’s obviously perfected. “You’re late.”

“It’s like...an hour.” He moves past them, to the counter to grab something, and Eddie bristles at his utter lack of care. 

“And that’s an hour too late, Nathan. Was there some sort of reason you couldn’t even call? We got you that cell phone in case something came up and you were going to be late, so you could let us know.”

“What does it matter? I’m back, nothing happened, a ten o’clock curfew is dumb as shit anyway.”

“And that’s why we’re the adults who make the rules. It’s not your call to make. Your curfew is ten; we expect you home by ten, and if for any reason you’re running late, we expect you to let us know.” Buck’s voice is steady and even, and Eddie is honestly befuddled at how _calm_ Buck is when there’s a rising fury building in him.

“It’s just an hour! Why are you being so anal about it? No one else cared when I came home!” 

“You can’t just not be home by curfew, Nathan! It’s there for a reason!” Eddie’s trying to keep from yelling, and really, it’s Buck’s hand on his arm, anchoring him, that’s keeping his temper from raging. It’s Buck reminding him that Nate is fifteen and has basically had zero structure for his teenage years and that he’s testing boundaries, seeing where they’ll break. “What if you’d been picked up? What if your case worker decided that you shouldn’t stay here?”

Nate’s sullen, pressed against the kitchen counters, his own anger building, bubbling. “Why do you care? I’m a problem child and you could use this to finally get rid of me!”

“Get rid of you?” Buck’s still so calm, and but now it’s laced with uncertainty, his hand tightening its hold on Eddie. “Why...what are you talking about, Nate? Are you unhappy here? Did...have we done something to make you feel like we want to get rid of you?” 

“Everyone wants to get rid of me after awhile.” Nate’s shell of carefully curated detached teenager with a devil-may-care attitude and bored facade is crumbling before them as he wraps his arms around himself, to protect himself from whatever he thinks is coming. It’s that exact moment that Eddie’s anger completely bleeds out, left with worry and concern at just how _broken_ Nate is once his tough exterior is cracked. “I thought I’d just save you the trouble of figuring out how unwantable I am, because you guys are decent.”

Eddie glances at Buck, and he looks just as heartbroken as Eddie feels, and Eddie...he can’t stand there when his kid is falling apart in front of him. He steps toward Nate, hands out in front of him, trying not to spook the teenager. “ _Mijo_ , can I hug you?” He’s making an effort to keep his voice light, channeling Buck’s prior _calm_ , and Nate-he’s so close to tears, Eddie can see them brimming in his eyes-nods, just once. As soon as Eddie wraps him in a hug, Nate breaks, his hands fisting tightly at the back of Eddie’s shirt, a sob wracking through him. 

“Why doesn’t anyone want me?” Nate’s voice is barely above a whisper, words tumbling out between sobs. “I just want to be wanted.” 

“Oh, kid,” Eddie murmurs, running a hand through Nate’s hair as the boy continues to cry, Buck coming up to wrap around their hug. “We want you, Nate. Buck and Chris and me-we want you. That’s why we care about curfew and the rules we have to follow-because we want you. We want to adopt you.”

“You’re lying.” He keeps a tight hold on Eddie as he says it, and Eddie can’t help the soft laugh.

“We’re not,” Buck answers, squeezing one of Nate’s forearms where it’s still locked against Eddie. “We had a whole thing planned for Saturday. We were going to make you pancakes, talk to you about it...Chris came up with the idea, because he knows how much you like pancakes. We know how rough you’ve had it the last few years, and we know a lot of people have let you down and haven’t cared like you deserve, but Nate...we don’t want to be those people. We want to watch you grow up and see you graduate and teach you how to drive and celebrate when you get into a good college and find the right person and get married and become an amazing adult. We want to be your fathers. We want you, we care about you, and no amount of pushing boundaries is going to make that change for us. So, this isn’t Saturday morning pancakes, but…we want to adopt you, if you’ll let us.”

Eddie doesn’t know how long they stand in the kitchen like that, hugging their kid as he sobs, and he’s not sure if it’s because he still thinks no one wants him, or because he’s starting to realize they do, but Eddie _does_ know he and Buck will be there for as long as it takes, because they take the ‘comfort in the time of need’ portion of parenting very seriously. 

He hears the clatter of Chris’ crutches as he comes out of his bedroom, the clack of Scarlet’s nails against the floor, and they’ve clearly woken them up by their late-night disturbance. “What’s going on?” he asks as he joins them, wrapping his arms in their hug, too, Scarlet standing at their side, tail flapping against the floor. “Why’s Nate crying? Dad, what did you do? Nate, do I need to hit him with my crutch?”

Nate laughs, in the middle of their family hug, and over his head, Buck grins at Eddie, leaning down to plant a kiss on Chris’ bedraggled curls. “You are supposed to be using those crutches for good, not evil. What are you even doing out of bed, Superman?” 

“I don’t know if you know this, Buck, but you guys are loud.” 

Nate laughs again, and his hands finally loosen from Eddie’s shirt, and their family hug unfolds, just enough that he can wipe away the stray tears left, Scarlet worming her way in to sit against his leg. “Sorry, Chris. I...I came home late, didn’t say anything. Tried to pick a fight, and your dads gave me some incredible news instead, and I...I wasn’t expecting it.”

“They spilled the beans, didn’t they?” 

He gives Eddie a glare, one that Eddie just has to grin at, and he ruffles Chris’ hair. “Sorry about that _mijo_ , but it was important to tell Nate tonight. We can still have Saturday morning pancakes to celebrate, if that’s what he wants?”

They all look at Nate, and it’s Buck asking the most important question. “So, what do you say, kid? We come with rules and expectations and _curfew_ and mandatory Family Dinners at Abuela’s and too many prying coworkers who are going to become obsessed with every facet of your life and two dads who do a very dangerous job but who will always try their damnedest to come back to you after each and every shift. We’ll never leave you behind, and we’ll never not want you. So...what do you say? You want to be a part of this craziness?”

It’s a second of silence-one Eddie’s sure that he’s holding his breath for ( _what if they got this wrong? What if Nate-_ )-before Nate smiles, a wide, open smile, one of pure happiness Eddie has only seen a few times from the teenager (usually moments involving some combination of him and Chris and Scarlet) and he nods. “Yes, guys. I want Family Dinners and crazy coworkers and even the freaking curfew. I….I just... _yes_.” He lets them hug him again, feeling lighter than he can remember, the happiest he’s been since he was little. “And I won’t say no to celebratory we're-adopting-you pancakes on Saturday, as long as Buck cooks them. Wouldn’t want Eddie’s cooking to kill the newest Buckley-Diaz before I get to actually, officially be him.”

**Author's Note:**

> Again, I hope you enjoy, and I hope my OC is at least acceptable, as there are other future fics I want to write in this series. I'm super nervous about having an OC-centric story, so please, please be kind if you have any criticism in the comments. Also, this fic is not _nearly_ as long as it felt when writing it, and I'm pretty sure I used the word _calm_ and _laugh_ and _just_ about 943508 times each. Whoops.
> 
> Thanks in advance for the kudos and comments, and if you want, you can find me [here](https://signsofsam.tumblr.com/) on tumblr.


End file.
